If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You will be required to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

MAINTENANCE NOTICE: The site will be down for maintenance on Sunday, February 18, 2018, between 9 AM and 12 PM Eastern. We apologize for any inconvenience!

yup...another rant

05-17-2008, 04:09 PM

Ok, here's a few thoughts I have on the things that drive me batty, no offense intended to anyone, this is in humorous context (think Andy Rooney)...

Electricians, brother tradesmen...why, why oh why do you guys almost always leave your mess behind??i understand the wood chips from smaller holes don't amount to much, the leftover wires are light and easily kicked to the side, but everyone else still gets to trip over the stuff.I have never worked for a plumbing outfit where the boss didn't insist we clean after ourselves...I go nuts when I have to step all over crap on the flloor...I just clean as I go...why don't you guys?

Engineers, all due respect, if I could do it all over again I'd be an engineer...but...Why so often, when I estimate a job for an engineer's home, do you guys feel so compelled to let me know, and dwell on the fact, that you're an engineer?Plumbers don't generally regard engineers as some type of "super-plumber" or something....sure, you guys know the chemical, thermal, conductive and physical properties of Megallium when heated to 1200 degree's...but thats not plumbing...trust me.When an engineer tells me he's an engineer, I recall all the times in my commercial days when the super would rant "%$%$%* ENGINEERS!" every time we came to the realization that the HVAC guys, Sprinkler guys, Electricians and plumbers were ready to wage war...because the engineers missed a "small" detail in the dimensions and we all feel our work takes precidence....ssshhhh, don't tell us your an engineer.

Homeowners, please, please, please listen...I know you feel you're getting a better bargain by purchasing that faucet yourself at HD, despite my claims they are not the same as we get from our suppliers...but please, I am willing to beg...please, DON'T take it out of the package till I get there!That little metal packing clip you threw out...it wasn't a packing clip...I now have to rifle through my truck to find the part...finally removing it from a spare faucet I keep in my truck that I will now have to replace.Those "extra parts" that came with the toilet...they weren't extra...trust me.

I just let them talk and talk and talk. Then I ask one question and they talk and talk and talk. I start getting pipes out and they want to debate how I am going to get the pipe in there and talk and talk and talk. Then I put the flux on the pipe and they talk and talk and talk. Then when I am done they have figured out a new way of doing it and they talk and talk and talk.

$$$$$

One company I worked for had a standing rule that never waivered. If we found out they were a engineer of any type we refused the job.

I have given up on telling homeowners about big box store faucets and water heaters.

Never had a problem with a electrician other than they are quiet.

Anyone can tear a man down, few can build one up.

Comment

My sister in law's an electrical engineer. I wired her house and her camp for her because she has'nt got a clue how do actually do anything. I find most engineers to be arrogant bastards that think they know everything and the mostly don't know &*%^. It's funny though how over the years if you keep current with the trade and equipment, how we all sort of turn into engineers in our own trade.
I have always thought that service work would be a lot easier if the homeowner wasn't around.

Plumbers don't generally regard engineers as some type of "super-plumber" or something....sure, you guys know the chemical, thermal, conductive and physical properties of Megallium when heated to 1200 degree's...but thats not plumbing...trust methere![/B]

My sister in law's an electrical engineer. I wired her house and her camp for her because she has'nt got a clue how do actually do anything.

my degreed background is in electronics. i swrear this world would be a better place if the design engineers had to do service work or maintenance on their product before it was released to the real world.

i've known EEs that could not solder 2 wires together if their lives depended on it. i owned a chevy that you could not get to 2 sparkplugs without special tool# soans so or undo motor mounts and move the freaking engine. i've seen japanese engineers actually bow to a broadcast tape machine before sitting down to modify something.

engineers are pretty much a total waste of space. now i do know some good ones (as humans) but as a race they are a lame lot.

flame on engineering community, i've got my asbestos suit on

steve

In the never ending struggle to keep the water flowing.... The Poo Poo Cowboy rides again!!!

Comment

I just love the HO that buy stuff at Home Cheapo or Blowes, If customer supplies finish for the job that part of the job is T&M no exceptions. The customer either takes it apart or someone has went to the store and robbed the part that they lost or broke. " The parts are missing sir please return it to the store and get one with all of the parts, I will be here getting paid to wait for you sir".

Engineers, home inspectors, politicians all fall in the category, they don't know sh*t about sh*t. Enough said on that subject.

I have had to clean up after the other trades many times over the years. Sweep it up put it in some buckets and deposit it on the front floor and drivers seat of their vehicle with a note "You forgot to pick this up, signed, Not your Maid".

WE LIVE IN THE LAND OF THE FREE,
ONLY BECAUSE OF THE BRAVE

Comment

I have had to clean up after the other trades many times over the years. Sweep it up put it in some buckets and deposit it on the front floor and drivers seat of their vehicle with a note "You forgot to pick this up, signed, Not your Maid".

First company I worked for, I got very lucky. They made all of us fresh out of college types do a month in the tool room machining parts before they'd let us send any prints out there for unmakeable parts. Then I got even luckier. I had the good fortune to be liked by some of the crusty old guys on the plant maintenace crew, and was adopted by some pipefitters. Word got out that I was one of the idiots in a tie you could actually work with. I hated my desk and would hang out with these guys, and with the millwrights, and machine repairmen, etc on my jobs. While I was "supervising" them, they taught me to cut, weld, align machinery, shape babbit bearings, many things.

They made me look great. I'd get a job, sketch out a basic idea, then go out and ask the crew how it would work. They'd tell me what to change and why it'd be easier that way, and then it would come back to them formally and they'd love me for not sending them stupid crap jobs and my jobs would get done well and on time.

I watched other fresh fish my age go out and tell 50 year old men with 30+ years of experience that they were doing it wrong. Berate them for not making it to their print. I saw .002" clearances on dimensions that could move by .200 without hurting a thing. All the trades would vanish when they walked into an area, and boy, could I see why.

This is my reminder to myself that no good will ever come from discussing politics or religion with anyone, ever.

Comment

people lets not leave out lawyers, i personally get nauseated whenever i have to work, for one no matter what the subject there right, and they never hesitate to let you know within seconds of arriving im a lawyer and there it hangs in the air in all its insidious glory as you find yourself rethinking everything your goinig to say, i have on more than one ocasion had to remind them to stick to law and ill handle the plumbing.

Comment

My electrical rant. Showing up at a commercial project and finding the power box 200' from the mechanical room where we will be working. Oh, did I mention the mechanical room has no lights. So you go to the truck and you drag out a couple 100' eight or ten guage extension cords. Drag your work lites out. Plug everything up and then proceed to work, then without warning all the power goes out. You trace your wiring back and find that the electrician has unplugges all your cords from there box so they can string some lites at some other location on the project.

Comment

Engineers. Aggravating for the most part. Something about the brain of an engineer that makes them always, always, think they're right on given subjects. They just can't see another persons point of view. Their loss. They don't even realize how much their not learning by refusing to listen to experienced people.

I bet they refuse to watch "Engineering Disasters" on A&E.

Electricians. Been fortunate I guess. Haven't had much problem working around them. Just have to remind them that they have more options with wire installation than I do with pipe installation.

Some doctors have an "air" of superiority about them. If you ever run into this, talk to them alot and always call them by their first name. Or Mr./Mrs. so and sol. Never use the term doctor. Drives them nuts. And yes, I know what they have to go through to become a doc. But there's no excuse for anyone not initially respecting others.